Applications for geographically coded access points

ABSTRACT

Applications and uses for geographic coded of network access points includes a method for generating a geographic code and an associated graphical user-interface; a method for rejecting or filtering out geographic codes of inaccurately labeled access points; a method for using geographic codes as part of network service discovery; a method for using geographic codes as part of resource discovery and display; a method for using geographic codes for asset tracking; a method for using geographic codes for file transfer and an associated user interface; a method for using geographic codes for location tracking; a method for using geographic codes as part of a domain name registry; and a method for sending geographic codes automatically.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims priority under 35 U.S.C. §119(e) from U.S.Provisional Patent Application No. 60/977,055, titled “GeographicTagging of Network Access Points,” filed Oct. 2, 2007, and from U.S.Provisional Patent Application No. 60/979,659, titled “Applications AndUsers Of GeoFi System” filed Oct. 12, 2007, both of which areincorporated by reference herein in their entirety.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to the field of geographic locationsystems in general, and specifically, to the use of network accesspoints to provide geographic information. Still more particularly, thepresent invention relates applications or uses of geographic codestransmitted as part of beacon signals of access points.

2. Description of the Background Art

With the proliferation of portable computing devices such as laptopcomputers and personal digital assistants, and mobile communicationsdevices such as smart phones and cellular telephones, it is advantageousfor a user to be able to know their precise location. Knowing one isprecise location along with the computational capabilities of suchcomputing devices allows users to access information that can greatlysimplify any number of tasks. For example, retrieving directions to anoff-site meeting requires knowing your starting point. Similarly,searching for stores, companies, points of interest of interest, etc.requires that the user knows her location. While most present-daycomputing devices include an ability to communicate wirelessly withother devices or a network, most present-day computing devices do notinclude any way to determine the location of the computing device.

The prior art has attempted to solve this deficiency by including globalpositioning system (GPS) circuitry within laptop computers and cellphones. There are currently a number of different companies thatmanufacture GPS chips for inclusion in such portable computing andmobile communication devices. However, the addition of such globalpositioning systems to computing devices suffers from a number ofdeficiencies. First, the additional circuitry can be expensive. Forexample, GPS devices can range from several hundred dollars to thousandsof dollars. Second, GPS devices typically needed a significant amount oftime to acquire position signals from satellites as well as perform thecalculations necessary to determine location. For example, aninitialization of the GPS circuitry can take several minutes. Even whenthe GPS device active, it takes a minimum of 35 seconds to establish theinitial location of the computing device. Finally, the greatestdisadvantage with GPS systems is that they do not function properlyinside office buildings and in high density urban environments. Thephysical structure of the office buildings interferes with the positionsignals from the satellites which are sensitive to timing differencescaused by signal bounces, and are too weak to penetrate many structures.

A second prior art approach uses a database of media access control(MAC) addresses and offers this information over a network such as theInternet as a location-based service. The database includes pairs oflocations and MAC addresses. The pair information in the database isdetermined by hiring drivers in most major cities to map the MACaddresses of access points to locations in their city. To determine alocation, the user need only retrieve the location corresponding to theaccess point MAC address from the database. However, this prior artsolution also has a number of shortcomings. First, it requires that theuser's computing device have a connection to the Internet in order toaccess the database and retrieve information from it, or have anextensive local database which may be out of date. Second, the locationcan only be identified to a level of precision of the transmission rangeof the access point.

Furthermore, the limitations of cost, in operability indoors, andrequiring an Internet connection have limited the applications that havebeen developed to use location information. Typically, locationinformation has not been added to a variety of other activities becauseof the aforementioned limitations. For example, there are of uses forlocation information ranging from asset tracking to record-keeping torouting that have not been implemented or adopted because of the expansein obtaining geographic information.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention overcomes the deficiencies and limitations of theprior art by providing systems and methods for using access points thathave been tagged with geographic codes. In particular, the presentinvention includes a variety of systems and devices for using geographiccodes, and user interfaces for generating and interacting for varioususes of geographic codes. For example, the present invention includes anasset tracking system utilizing geographic codes. The present inventionalso includes a number of methods and applications using geographiccodes. For example the present invention includes: a method forgenerating a geographic code and an associated graphical user-interface;a method for rejecting or filtering out geographic codes of inaccuratelylabeled access points; a method for using geographic codes as part ofnetwork service discovery; a method for using geographic codes as partof resource discovery and display; a method for using geographic codesfor asset tracking; a method for using geographic codes for filetransfer and an associated user interface; a method for using geographiccodes for location tracking; a method for using geographic codes as partof a domain name registry; and a method for sending geographic codesautomatically.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The present invention is illustrated by way of example, and not by wayof limitation in the figures of the accompanying drawings in which likereference numerals are used to refer to similar elements.

FIG. 1 is a high-level block diagram illustrating a first embodiment ofa computing system including of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a high-level block diagram illustrating a second embodiment ofa computing system including of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is block diagram of a service set identifier and geographic codesaccording to one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating a general process for geographictagging of network access points according to one embodiment of thepresent invention.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating a process for encoding a geographiclocation into a geographic code according to one embodiment of thepresent invention.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating a process for decoding a geographiccode into location according to one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating a process for encoding a height intoa geographic code according to one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart illustrating a process for decoding a geographiccode into height according to one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart illustrating a process for determining a locationof a computing device using the beacon signals network access pointsaccording to one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart illustrating an embodiment of a process forgenerating and presenting a geographic code in response to a requestfrom a user according to the present invention.

FIG. 11 is a graphical representation of an embodiment of a userinterface for generating and presenting a geographic code according tothe present invention.

FIG. 12 is a flowchart illustrating a first embodiment of a process forrejecting incorrectly labeled geographic codes according to the presentinvention.

FIG. 13 is a flowchart illustrating a second embodiment of a process forrejecting incorrectly labeled geographic codes according to the presentinvention.

FIG. 14 is a flowchart illustrating an embodiment of a process fordiscovering network service according to the present invention.

FIG. 15 is a flowchart illustrating an embodiment of a process fordiscovering and mapping resources according to the present invention.

FIG. 16 is a high-level block diagram illustrating an embodiment of acomputing system for asset tracking using geographic codes according tothe present invention.

FIG. 17 is a flowchart illustrating an embodiment of a process for assettracking using geographic codes according to the present invention.

FIG. 18 is a flowchart illustrating an embodiment of a process for usinggeographic codes for automated file transfer.

FIG. 19 is a graphical representation of an embodiment of a userinterface for automated file transfer according to the presentinvention.

FIG. 20 is a flowchart illustrating an embodiment of a process forlocation tracking and recording according to the present invention.

FIG. 21 is a flowchart illustrating an embodiment of a process for usinggeographic codes as part of a registry according to the presentinvention.

FIG. 22 is a flowchart illustrating an embodiment of a process forsetting geographic codes according to the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

A system and method for geographic tagging of network access points aredescribed. In the following description, for purposes of explanation,numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thoroughunderstanding of the invention. It will be apparent, however, to oneskilled in the art that the invention can be practiced without thesespecific details. In other instances, structures and devices are shownin block diagram form in order to avoid obscuring the invention. Forexample, the present invention is described in the context of networkaccess points utilized by wireless networks and a portable computingdevice such as a laptop computer; however, those skilled in the art willrecognize that the present invention may be implemented in other systemsthat that utilize beacon signals that are in part user configurable.

Reference in the specification to “one embodiment” or “an embodiment”means that a particular feature, structure or characteristic describedin connection with the embodiment is included in at least one embodimentof the invention. The appearances of the phrase “in one embodiment” invarious places in the specification are not necessarily all referring tothe same embodiment.

As used herein, the terms “comprises,” “comprising,” “includes,”“including,” “has,” “having” or any other variation thereof, areintended to cover a non-exclusive inclusion. For example, a process,method, article, or apparatus that comprises a list of elements is notnecessarily limited to only those elements but may include otherelements not expressly listed or inherent to such process, method,article or apparatus. Further, unless expressly stated to the contrary,“or” refers to an inclusive or and not to an exclusive or. For example,a condition A or B is satisfied by any one of the following: A is true(or present) and B is false (or not present), A is false (or notpresent) and B is true (or present), and both A and B are true (orpresent).

Some portions of the detailed descriptions that follow are presented interms of algorithms and symbolic representations of operations on databits within a computer memory. These algorithmic descriptions andrepresentations are the means used by those skilled in the dataprocessing arts to most effectively convey the substance of their workto others skilled in the art. An algorithm is here, and generally,conceived to be a self consistent sequence of steps leading to a desiredresult. The steps are those requiring physical manipulations of physicalquantities. Usually, though not necessarily, these quantities take theform of electrical or magnetic signals capable of being stored,transferred, combined, compared and otherwise manipulated. It has provenconvenient at times, principally for reasons of common usage, to referto these signals as bits, values, elements, symbols, characters, terms,numbers or the like.

It should be borne in mind, however, that all of these and similar termsare to be associated with the appropriate physical quantities and aremerely convenient labels applied to these quantities. Unlessspecifically stated otherwise as apparent from the following discussion,it is appreciated that throughout the description, discussions utilizingterms such as “processing” or “computing” or “calculating” or“determining” or “displaying” or the like, refer to the action andprocesses of a computer system, or similar electronic computing device,that manipulates and transforms data represented as physical(electronic) quantities within the computer system's registers andmemories into other data similarly represented as physical quantitieswithin the computer system memories or registers or other suchinformation storage, transmission or display devices.

Some embodiments may be described using the expression “coupled” and“connected” along with their derivatives. It should be understood thatthese terms are not intended as synonyms for each other. For example,some embodiments may be described using the term “connected” to indicatethat two or more elements are in direct physical or electrical contactwith each other. In another example, some embodiments may be describedusing the term “coupled” to indicate that two or more elements are indirect physical or electrical contact. The term “coupled,” however, mayalso mean that two or more elements are not in direct contact with eachother, but yet still co-operate or interact with each other. Theembodiments are not limited in this context.

The present invention also relates to an apparatus for performing theoperations herein. This apparatus may be specially constructed for therequired purposes, or it may comprise a general-purpose computerselectively activated or reconfigured by a computer program stored inthe computer. Such a computer program may be stored in a computerreadable storage medium, such as, but is not limited to, any type ofdisk including floppy disks, optical disks, CD-ROMs and magnetic opticaldisks, read-only memories (ROMs), random access memories (RAMs), EPROMs,EEPROMs, magnetic or optical cards, or any type of media suitable forstoring electronic instructions, each coupled to a computer system bus.

Finally, the algorithms and displays presented herein are not inherentlyrelated to any particular computer or other apparatus. Variousgeneral-purpose systems may be used with programs in accordance with theteachings herein, or it may prove convenient to construct morespecialized apparatus to perform the required method steps. The requiredstructure for a variety of these systems will appear from thedescription below. In addition, the present invention is not describedwith reference to any particular programming language. It will beappreciated that a variety of programming languages may be used toimplement the teachings of the invention as described herein.

System Overview

FIG. 1 illustrates a block diagram of a distributed computing system 100including the present invention. The distributed computing system 100includes a locatable device 102 and a plurality of network access points104, 106 and 108. The locatable device 102 is adapted for wirelesscommunication with one or more of the plurality of network access points104, 106 and 108. In one embodiment, the locatable device 102 is movableand the locatable device 102 receives signals to and from each accesspoint 104, 106 and 108 when the locatable device 102 is within thecommunication range of a particular network access point 104, 106 and108. Although not shown, the distributed computing system 100 alsoincludes a network. The network (not shown) may comprise a conventionalnetwork such as a local area network (LAN), a wide area network (WAN),the Internet or other suitable communication system wired or wireless.The network is coupled to the plurality of network access points 104,106 and 108.

The locatable device 102 is any computing device capable of receiving abeacon signal and decoding the geographic code embedded within thebeacon signal. For example, the locatable device 102 includes a receiverfor receiving the beacon and other processing capabilities to extractthe geographic code from the beacon signal and decode it. In oneembodiment, the locatable device 102 is a portable computing device suchas a laptop computer in another embodiment, the locatable device 102 isa mobile communications device with computing capabilities such as asmart phone. In yet another embodiment, the locatable device 102 is anyelectronic device including a receiver and having other processingcapabilities such as a printer, an audio recorder, a camera, a motionsensor, a photocopier, a diagnostic device, etc. Those skilled in theart will recognize that the locatable device 102 need not broadcastanything and in one embodiment just receives signals and processes them.

The plurality of access points 104, 106 and 108 are of a conventionaltype such as wireless access points used in computer networking.Although three access points 104, 106 and 108 are shown in FIG. 1 forillustration purposes, those skilled in the art will recognize that theprinciples of the present invention will work in any system that has aleast one access point. The network access points 104, 106 and 108 aredevices that that connect wireless communication devices (e.g. thelocatable device 102) together to form a wireless network. In oneembodiment as noted above, each of the plurality of access points 104,106 and 108 may be coupled to a wired network. In another embodiment,they are nodes of a wireless mesh network. The plurality of accesspoints 104, 106 and 108 are used to relay data between wireless devicesand wire devices. In one embodiment, the access points communicate usingthe IEEE 802.11 standard, although in other embodiments beacon signalsof other standards may also be used in accordance with the principles ofthe present invention. Unlike the prior art, the plurality of accesspoints 104, 106 and 108 are geographically tagged with locationinformation. In one embodiment, the location information is the positionof the access point 104, 106 and 108 in terms of longitude and latitude.In another embodiment, the location information also includes the heightof the access point. This location information is encoded into ageographic code. In another embodiment, the location information encodedinto a first geographic code and second geographic code or a prefix anda geographic code. In accordance with the present invention, thegeographic code(s) is included as part of the beacon signal or frame andtransmitted by the access points 104, 106 and 108 to other deviceswithin range. For example, the beacon signal or frame is transmitted bythe access point 104, 106 and 108 several times a second. The geographiccode(s) as part of the beacon signal is described below in more detailwith reference to FIG. 3. In particular, for the configuration shown inFIG. 1, the first access point 104 would transmit a beacon signalincluding a first geographic code representing an encoded value of itslocation; the second access point 106 transmits a beacon signalincluding a second geographic code representing an encoded value of itslocation which is different from the location of the first access pointand does be second geographic code is different than the firstgeographic code; and the third access point 108 transmits a beaconsignal including a third graphic code representing and coded value ofits location which is different from the location of both the firstaccess point 106 and second access point 108.

Referring at FIG. 2, another embodiment of the system 200 is shown. Thesystem 200 includes the locatable device 102, the first access point106, the second access point 108, and the third access point 108. Thesecomponents have a similar form and function as that described above withreference to FIG. 1 so that description will not be repeated here. Thesystem 200 also includes a geolocation service provided from a server202 and a network connection 204 from the locatable device 102 to theserver 202. In one embodiment, the geolocation service provided from theserver 202 provides additional information related to particulargeographic locations in response to requests. The network connection 204from the locatable device 102 to the server 202 may be for example awireless network connection provided by a mobile communications carrierto a smart phone. Using the added functionality provided by the networkconnection 204 and the server 202, the locatable device 102 candetermine its location using the geographic codes from the access points104, 106 and 108, and request services or information based on itslocation from the geolocation service provided by the server 202.

The Geographic Codes

Referring now to FIG. 3, one embodiment for the geographic codes used inthe present invention will be described. FIG. 3 is a block diagram of abeacon frame or signal 300 in accordance with the present invention. Thebeacon frame 300 preferably comprises a common frame header 302, abeacon interval 304, a timestamp 306, a service set identifier (SSID)308, supported rate field 310, a parameter set field 312, capabilityinformation field 314, a traffic indication map (TIM), and a cyclicalredundancy check (CRC) field. In general, the beacon frame 300 isapproximately 50 bytes long.

The common frame header 302 includes source and destination MACaddresses as well as other information regarding the communicationsprocess. The destination address is always set to all ones, which is thebroadcast Medium Access Control (MAC) address. This forces all otherstations on the applicable channel to receive and process each beaconframe. The common frame header 302 is about have of the beacon frame300.

The beacon interval 304 includes a value that represents the amount oftime between beacon frame 300 transmissions. Before any locatable device102 enters a power save mode, the locatable device 102 needs the beaconinterval to know when to wake up to receive the next beacon and learnwhether there are buffered frames at the access point 104, 106 and 108.

The timestamp 306 is a value of the network clock corresponding to theaccess point 104, 106 and 108. After receiving a beacon frame 300, thelocatable device 102 uses the timestamp value to update its local clock.This process enables synchronization among the locatable devices 102that are associated with the same access point 104, 106 and 108.

The supported rate field 310 stores information about the supportedrates. Each beacon frame 300 carries information that describes therates that the particular wireless LAN supports. For example, a beaconframe 300 may indicate that only 1, 2, and 5.5 Mbps data rates areavailable. As a result, the locatable device 102 would stay withinlimits and not use 11 Mbps. With this information, locatable devices 102can use performance metrics to decide which access point 104, 106 and108 with which to associate.

The parameter set field 312 includes information about the wirelessparameters. The beacon frame 300 includes information about the specificsignaling methods (such as frequency hopping spread spectrum, directsequence spread spectrum, etc.). For example, a beacon frame 300 wouldinclude in the appropriate parameter set the channel number that anaccess point 104, 106 and 108 is using. Likewise, a beacon frame 300belonging to frequency hopping network would indicate hopping patternand dwell time.

The capability information field 314 store capability information fornetwork access. The capability information identifies requirements oflocatable devices 102 that wish to belong to the wireless LAN that thebeacon frame 300 represents. For example, this information may indicatethat the locatable devices 102 must use wired equivalent privacy (WEP)in order to participate on the network.

The traffic indication map (TIM) 316 is sent in the beacon frame 300 toidentify which stations using power saving mode have data frames waitingfor them in the access point's buffer. The TIM 316 identifies thelocatable devices 102 by the association ID that the access point 104,106 and 108 assigned during the association process.

The cyclical redundancy check (CRC) field 318. The CRC field 318provides error detection capability.

The service set identifier (SSID) 308 is a user definable and humanreadable name that identifies an access point 104, 106 and 108, andthus, its corresponding wireless LAN. Before associating with aparticular wireless LAN, a locatable device 102 must have the same SSID308 as the access point 104, 106 and 108. By default, access points 104,106 and 108 include the SSID 308 in the beacon frame 300 to enablesniffing functions (such as that provided by Windows XP) to identify theSSID 308 and automatically configure the wireless network interface card(not shown) with the proper SSID 308. Some access point vendors have anoption to disable the SSID 308 from being broadcast in the beacon frame300 to reduce security issues. The service set identifier (SSID) 308 istypically 32 user definable ASCII characters. During set up of theaccess point 104, 106 and 108, the user has the ability to set the valueof the SSID 308. For example, networks are often named by systemadministrators with descriptive names that the users will recognize whenthey attempt to associate with the access point 104, 106 and 108.

As shown in FIG. 3, the present invention advantageously encodes theprecise geographic coordinates of the access point 104, 106 and 108 intoa geographic code, and inserts that geographic code as part of the SSID308. While the description below will describe the geographic code andSSID 308 for a particular access point 104, those skilled in the artwill recognize that the geographic codes and SSIDs 308 of the otheraccess points 106 and 108 have a similar form and functionality.

In one embodiment, the geographic code is an encoded value of theprecise geographic coordinates (longitude and latitude) of the accesspoint 104. In this embodiment, the geographic code is the last ninecharacters of the SSID 308. The geographic code comprises a firstcharacter 320 encoding multiplier values, four characters representing alatitude value, and four characters representing the longitude value,LONCODE 324. The encoding scheme of the present invention will bedescribed in more detail with reference to FIG. 5 below. It isparticularly advantageous for the geographic code to be the last ninecharacters of the SSID 308 because it allows the preceding 23 charactersto be used in a conventional manner by the user or system administratorto give the access point 104 a human readable name that the user willrecognize. However, those skilled in the art will recognize that thegeographic code of the present invention could be in any other positionwithin the SSID 308. Furthermore, the nine characters used forgeographic code need not be contiguous.

In another embodiment, the SSID 308 also includes two additionalcharacters for storing a second geographic code or prefix representingthe height of the access point 104. In this embodiment, the twoadditional characters precede the nine characters for the geographiccode. Those skilled in the art will recognize that in other embodimentsthese two characters could be in any other position within the SSID 308.The use of SSID 308 with encode values is particularly advantageousbecause it does not have adverse effects on the access point 104 as arouter. Furthermore, since most access points 104 broadcast SSIDinformation several times a second, whether or not a user can connect tothat access point 104, the SSID can be listened to passively be a radioreceiver. This can be done with very low power on the locatable device102, which never needs power a transmitter to get the information.

General Method

Referring now to FIG. 4, an embodiment of a method for geographictagging in accordance with the present invention will be described. Byway of example and for ease of understanding, the method will bedescribed in the context of a particular access point, access point 104,however those skilled in the art will recognize that the portions of theprocess described below may be repeated for any number of access points(e.g., 106 and 108). The process begins by determining 402 the latitudeand longitude for a given access point 104. In order to create thegeographic code, a user must precisely specify the latitude andlongitude coordinates for the access point 104. One method is to use amapping program, such as Google Maps, to allow a user to place a markerand the latitude and longitude coordinates are returned. In anotherembodiment, an external location device such as a GPS device can beplaced near the access point 104 and the latitude and longitudecoordinates determined that way or any other similar manual manner. Inyet another embodiment, the location of the device could be manuallycompared to precise survey data produced by any of a number of standardsurveying techniques.

Next, the method creates 404 a geographic code. The precise geographiccoordinates are encoded using a compact encoding into the geographiccode. As has been described above with reference to FIG. 3, in oneembodiment the geographic code is a nine character encoded value. Inanother embodiment, a first geographic code and a second geographic codeor prefix are used with the first geographic code being a latitude andlongitude and the second geographic code being a height. The processesfor creating these geographic codes will be described in more detailbelow with reference to FIGS. 5 and 7.

Next, the method inserts 406 the geographic code into the beacon signalof the access point 104. For example, most access points 104, 106 and108 allow the installer or person who sets up the access point toconfigure the service set identifier (SSID) 308 which is broadcast aspart of the access point's beacon. This can be done at set up forexample with a computer (not shown) connected to the access point 104.The SSID 308 is provided to the access point 104 such as through agraphical user interface in which the user inputs the desired SSID valueinto a dialog box and the SSID value is stored at the access point 104for broadcast as part of the beacon. For example, the user would useconventional access point management software to insert the code as thefinal characters of the access point SSID 308. In one embodiment, only asingle code with the longitude and latitude is inserted in step 406. Inanother embodiment, a first and second code are inserted in step 406,the second code being 2 characters in length and representing the heightand the first code being nine characters in length and representing thelongitude and latitude. In one embodiment, the geographic codes areinserted at the end of the SSID 308. This approach is advantageousbecause this allows the remaining 21 or 23 characters of the SSID codeto be used for words easily recognizable why users to distinguish thisaccess point from other access points. However those skilled in the artwill recognize that the geographic codes can be positioned at any agreedupon character locations within the SSID.

It should be understood that steps 402, 404, 406 can be repeated for anynumber of access points, and once each of these steps performed for eachaccess point 104, 106 and 108, they have been geographically tagged inaccordance with the present invention.

Then the access point 104 broadcasts 408 the beacon including thegeographic code(s).

The general method continues to use these geographic tags once theaccess points 104, 106 and 108 have been configured with them.

The locatable device 102 receives 410 the beacon signal from aparticular access point 104. Next, the locatable device 102 extracts 412the geographic code from the received beacon signal. This can beperformed by software operable on the locatable device 102. In oneembodiment, since the locatable device 102 knows that the geographiccode is located within the SSID 308, the locatable device 102 need onlydetermine the SSID 308 and extract the characters representing thegeographic code from the SSID 308. In one embodiment, the geographiccode is the last 9 characters of the SSID 308. In another embodiment,the geographic codes are the last 11 characters of the SSID 308. Next,the method continues by decoding 414 the geographic codes to determinethe geographic location of the access point 104. In one embodiment, themethod decodes the first geographic code representing the longitude andlatitude. In another embodiment, the method also decodes a secondgeographic code representing the height. Embodiments of the decodingprocess are described in more detail below with reference to FIG. 6 andFIG. 8. Once the geographic location has been determined, it can be used416 for any number of applications. For example, as will be describedbelow with reference to FIG. 9, a geographic location of the accesspoint 104 can be used to determine a precise location of the locatabledevice 102.

Encoding Method

Referring now to FIG. 5, one embodiment of a method for encoding ageographic location into a geographic code in accordance with thepresent invention will be described. The present invention generates ageographic code by encoding the latitude and longitude into a pair ofBase 60 numbers with the two highest order bits from each combined intoan initial hex digit. The resulting geographic code uses nine charactersto encode a position which is precise to a distance of roughly 2.5 feetat the equator.

As shown in FIG. 5, the longitude and latitude of an access point 104have already been determined (see step 402 shown with dashed lines). Themethod begins by scaling the longitude and latitude to 0<=x<360. Themethod then determines 502 whether the latitude is less than zero. Sincethe latitude is often referred to in terms of north and south latitudes,with north represented in positive degrees and the south represented innegative degrees, one embodiment of the present invention scales thelatitude to be in the range of 0° to 360°. Thus, if it is determined 502that the latitude has a negative value, the method continues to step 504to use as a value of the latitude, NLAT, the latitude plus 360°. If itis determined 502 that the latitude does not have a negative value thenthe method continues to step 506 to use as a value of the latitude,NLAT, the latitude value determined in step 402. The method representsthe latitude and longitude each as a 5-character string by multiplyingtheir value by 144000, rounding to the nearest integer, and convertingthe result to Base 60 using the “digits” 0-9, A-Z, and a-x. Next, themethod continues by calculating 508 the value of the first character320. In one embodiment, the first character 320 is computed by takingthe high-order character of the latitude, multiplying by 4, and addingthe high-order character of the longitude to form a hex digit. The firstdigit of the longitude (in the range of 0-3 because it is a multiplierof 90 degrees and the range is 0-270) is multiplied by 4 and added tothe first digit of the latitude which results in a number between 0 and15 (a hex digit). This can be generated directly using the equationfirst character=inttochar((LON/90)*4+NLAT/90) where LON is the longitudevalue from step 402 and NLAT is the latitude value from either step 504or 506. Then the method calculates 510 the value of the LATCODE 322. Inone embodiment, the LATCODE 322 is calculated by taking the fourlower-order characters of the latitude. This can be generated directlyusing the equation LATCODE=inttobase60((NLAT*144000)% 12960000). Thenthe method calculates 512 the value of the LONCODE 324. In oneembodiment, the LONCODE 324 is calculated by taking the four lower-ordercharacters of the longitude. This can be generated directly using theequation LONCODE=inttobase60((LON*144000)% 12960000). The creation ofthe geographic code is completed by appending 514 the first character320, the LATCODE 322 and the LONCODE 324. Once created, the geographiccode can be inserted 406 into the beacon signal. Those skilled in artwill recognize that above encoding scheme is just one of many that maybe used. For instance, in a preferred embodiment, a different set ofsymbols could encode the base 60 number, for instance replacing the “O”and “1” characters with “y” and “z” respectively, to prevent confusionof those characters with the “0” and “1” digits when typing the code.Other encoding schemes may be used with more or less accuracy and moreor fewer characters. For example, the code for latitude 37.42195,longitude−122.21386 would be expressed as the geographic code“8yuqfcVQi”.

By inserting this geographic code as the final nine characters of theSSID 308, the present invention makes the access point 104 a preciselocation beacon. This is advantageous because the beacon is moreaccurate than GPS, requires no additional hardware, and with theplethora of access points multiple beacons can be received by alocatable device 102 for position accuracy within 3 meters.

Referring now also to FIG. 7, an embodiment of a method for encoding theheight or altitude into the second geographic code or prefix inaccordance with the present invention will be described. This embodimentincludes height or altitude information as a two digit additional codethat provides 600 possible height codes by allowing the first digit ofthe pair to represent a multiplier from 0-9, and the second to representa base 60 number encoded just as specified above. This allows somestructural redundancy to reduce the accidental appearance of a heightcode as part of an ordinary SSID word. The method begins by receiving702 a height value. Next, the method determines 704 whether the heightvalue is within a range that can be encoded. Since the present inventionuses compact encoding and only uses two characters, the range of heightsthat can be encoded is limited to a range of approximately 1200 feetbelow ground to 4790 feet above ground. If the method determines 704that the received height is not within that range, the method indicates714 an error that the height cannot be encoded and the method ends. Onthe other hand, if the method determines 704 that the height is withinthe acceptable range, the method continues to step 706. In oneembodiment, the value of the height is converted to two characters inbase 60. In step 706, the method calculates 706 the value of the firstcharacter. The first character is generated by adding 1200 to the heightvalue, dividing the sum by 600 and converting that amount to base 60.Next in step 708, the value of the second character is calculated. Inone embodiment, the second character is determined by dividing thereceived height by 10 and converting the result into a base 60 value.Next, method appends 710 the first character and the second character tocreate a two character height code. For example, 0 (zero) feet aboveground would be the prefix “20”. The “20” prefix would be unused,redundant with the simpler 9 character code. Ten feet above ground wouldbe the prefix “21” and 1190 feet below ground would be the prefix “01”.Then the method inserts 712 the two character height code into thebeacon signal. It should be clear to one skilled in the art that afurther extension of this height code, using additional characters orusing different symbols, could be easily constructed.

The particular embodiment for encoding geographic information hasseveral valuable properties. Because it uses only visible and easilytyped characters, and is relatively short, it is easy for a human toenter these codes into the access point SSID. By positioning it at theend of the SSID field, the code is easily detected as a code with fewerfalse positive results than scanning the entire SSID for such codes atany position. These code properties would also be valuable for attachingthe codes to other forms of electronic data, such as documents orimages, in fields originally intended to contain human readable codes.

Decoding Method

Referring now to FIG. 6, one embodiment of a method for decoding ageographic code into a location will be described. It should be notedthat the locatable device 102 does not need to be connected to theinternet through the access point 104; it merely needs to be able toreceive the beacon signal. This is particularly advantageous because thelocatable device 102 receives location information by listening to theaccess point broadcast a beacon. The beacon is always broadcast multipletimes per second and includes the SSID which contains encoded latitudeand longitude information. All WiFi access points support SSID broadcastand all can easily add the encoded information.

The method begins with a geographic code such as has been produced bythe extraction step 412. Next, the method determines the 602 whether thefirst character of the geographic code is within a proper characterrange. For example, using the encoding scheme described above withreference to FIG. 5, the first character of the geographic code must bea character from 0-9 or A-F (e.g., any hex character). If the methoddetermined 602 that the first character is not within the propercharacter range, the method signals or outputs 604 an error indicatingthat the code was not properly formatted or that the charactersextracted are not a geographic code. On the other hand if it wasdetermined 602 that the first character was within the proper characterrange, the method continues in step 606 to determine whether the othercharacters are within a proper character range. In one embodiment, theproper character range for the other characters is 0-9, A-Z or a-x.Again, using the encoding scheme described above with reference to FIG.5, the remaining characters of the geographic code must be an characterfrom 0-9, A-Z or a-x. If the method determined 606 that any of theremaining characters are not within the proper character range, themethod proceeds to step 604 to signal or output and error signalindicating that the code is not properly formatted.

However if the method determined 606 that all of the remainingcharacters are within the proper character range, the method continuesto step 608. In step 608, the method extracts a pair of multipliers,MLAT and MLON, from the first character. The first multiplier is alatitude multiplier and the second multiplier is a longitudinalmultiplier. The first and second multipliers are generated by convertingthe first character from hex to integer, using the two lower digits asthe MLAT and the two higher digits as the MLON. These multipliers areused to re-create the longitude and latitude values from the geographiccode. Then the method calculates 610 the latitude from the secondthrough fifth characters of the geometric code. In one embodiment, thelatitude is equal to base60toint(char2-5)+(90*MLAT). Finally, the methodcalculates 612 the longitude from the sixth through ninth characters. Inone embodiment, the longitude is equal tobase60toint(char6-9)+(90*MLON). For example, the code “8yuqdcVQp”represents the geographic coordinates latitude 37.42194,longitude−122.21381.

Referring now to FIG. 8, one embodiment of the method for calculating aheight value of an access point from a prefix or geographic code will bedescribed. The method begins by extracting 802 the prefix or secondgeographic code. Similar to the first geographic code, the prefix orsecond geographic code may be part of the SSID 308 broadcast by theaccess point 104, 106 and 108. The method determines 804 whether thefirst character of the second geographic code is within a proper range.In one embodiment, the proper range for the first character of thesecond geographic code is from 0-9. If the method determined 804 thatthe first character of the second geographic code was not within theproper range, the method proceeds to step 806 to output or signal anerror indicating that either there was no height code included in theSSID 308 or that the height code was not properly formatted. On theother hand if the method determined 804 that the first character of thesecond geographic code was within the proper range, the method proceedsto step 808 to determine whether the second character is also within theproper range. In one embodiment, the proper range for the secondcharacter is 0-9, A-Z or a-x. If the method determined 808 that a secondcharacter was not within the proper range, the method continues to step806 as has been described above to output an error code and then ends.If however, the second character is determined 808 as within the properrange, the method determines 810 the height using the first characterand the second character. In one embodiment, the specified height is inbase 60. The height can be calculated by converting the second characterfrom base 60 to an integer value and multiplying the result by 10 thenadding the value of converting the first character from base 60 to aninteger value and multiplying that integer value by 600 and subtracting1200. This can be computed directly with the equationheight=base60toint(char 2)*10+(600*base60toint(char 1)−1200). Thisprovides a value of the height of the access point 104 above ground. Forcases, where the access point is below ground, the code can give a valueto a depth of 1200 feet.

These decoding methods are particularly advantageous because they allowthe locatable device to location with accuracy greater than GPS, withina fraction of a second, and even in dense urban environments and insideof buildings.

Example

Referring now to FIG. 9, one embodiment of a method for determining thelocation of the locatable device 102 will be described. The methodbegins by receiving 902 location information from a plurality of accesspoints 104, 106 and 108. For example the location information can be ageographic code or a prefix and a geographic code. In one embodiment,the method receives location information from at least three accesspoints. While the geographic information from one access points can beused to determine the general location, it will result in a number ofpossible locations. Next method determines the signal strength of thesignal received from each access point 104, 106 and 108. Referring nowalso to FIG. 2, example signal strengths for each access point is shown.The method then computes 906 the geometric center, C, of the accesspoints 104, 106 and 108. Next method normalizes 908 the signal strengthreceived from each access point 104, 106 and 108. For example, thesignal strength between the first access point 104 and the locatabledevice 102 is 0.1; the signal strength between the second access point106 and the locatable device 102 is 0.3; and finally, the signalstrength between the third access point 108 and the locatable device 102is 0.8. Then the method computes 910 an inverse vector, V_(i), to eachaccess point. Then the method modifies the value of the geometriccenter, C, by adding 912 the inverse vector, V_(i), multiplied by itscorresponding signal strength, S_(i) to the calculated geometric centerfrom step 906. This step of addition 912 is performed for each vectorcomputed in step 910. This effectively adjusts the computed center ofthe access points 104, 106 and 108 for the relative signal strengths ofeach access point 104, 106 and 108 as received by the locatable device102. The end result is that the location of the locatable device 102 isequal 914 to the modified value of the geometric center. Those skilledin the art will recognize that the above method can be modified to useheight codes as well. In such an embodiment, the method is similar,except the third dimension is added to each vector computation. Thus, a3-dimensional centroid between codes is computed, and each signalstrength adjustment is performed using a 3 element position vector. Thislocation determination method is advantageous because it is very fastand a locatable device 102 can determine its location in seconds usingvery simple calculations.

It is clear that access points might be mislabeled, either as an attackor simply because an SSID happens by accident to appear to be a validcode. In such cases, the software attempting to fix location mightcross-check the distances between the access points, and reject pointswhich appear to be clearly incorrect. For example, an 802.11 accesspoint has a range of approximately ten meters under normal operatingconditions. If one of the labels appears to indicate that one accesspoint is three miles from two or more other access points currentlyvisible, then that access can be assumed to have been mislabeled and thedata from that access point ignored for purposes of locationcomputation. Alternatively, the locatable device 102 might check againstother information sources, such as a GPS receiver or accelerometer, todetermine that some access point labels should be ignored. For example,an access point that appeared to contradict a high confidence GPSlocation might be ignored if it appears to be outside the accuracylimits of the GPS signal, or it might be used by preference as moreprecise if it fell within the accuracy limits of the GPS signal.Alternatively, if the device is known by accelerometer to have traveledless than a hundred feet, but suddenly an access point becomes visibleindicating that a hundred miles have been traversed, we can assume thatthe new access point label is incorrect.

Geographic Code Generation

Referring now to FIGS. 10 and 11, a method for generating and presentinga geographic code (also referred to in this application as a “geographictag”) in response to a request from a user will be described. Thismethod uses a mapping program to allow a user to place a markerprecisely on the map, and then calculates the resulting geographic code.The method begins by receiving 1002 a request from a user for geographiccode. For example, this may be done on a personal computer by with theuser using an input device to select a button that initiates theoperation of a software program implementing this method. In response, asoftware program or system implementing the present invention displays1004 a user interface 1102. Referring also to FIG. 11, one embodiment ofan example user interface 1102 is shown. FIG. 11 is a graphicalrepresentation of a display device 1100 showing the user interface 1102of the present invention. As can be seen, the user interface 1102advantageously includes a label and an input area or box 1104 forinputting a street address, a button 1106 for generating a geographiccode, and a map area 1108 for depicting a plan view of a particularlocation. The map area 1108 is a conventional type and in addition topresenting a plan view of the location, the map area 1108 providesselection buttons for switching between a street view, a satellite and ahybrid view. The map area 1108 also provides buttons for moving thelocation being depicted as well as zooming in and out. The methodcontinues to receive 1006 an address of a location from the user such asvia input box 1104. In response, the process retrieves 1008 a map forthe address received in step 1006. The map is then displayed 1010 in themap area 1108 of the user interface 1102. The user is able to input avariety of different map controls such as have been described above, amouse click over a particular location, or selection of the button 1106for generating the geographic code. The method receives 1012 the userinput and process it. If the user input is a map control, the methodprocess of the user input and returns to step 1008 to retrieve a map forthe modified location, zoom level or view. If the user input is a mouseclick, the method determines the position on the map corresponding tothe position at which the mouse was clicked, and temporarily stores theposition. If the user input was selection of the button 1106 forgenerating a geographic code, the method continues to step 1014 wherethe temporarily stored position is translated to coordinates, such aslongitude and latitude, for the location. These coordinates are thenused to create 1016 a geographic code. The geographic code can begenerated in a manner similar to that as has been described above withreference to FIG. 5. Finally, the user interface 1102 is updated todisplay 1018 the geographic code and a marker 1110. As shown in FIG. 11,the marker 1110 is positioned with the user clicked the mouse, and acomment box 1112 including the geographic code is shown. For the exampleuser interface 1102 depicted in FIG. 11 shows the geographic code is“8OuqfcVQi”. The user may then take this code and use it along withsoftware for setting up an access point and insert it with other humanreadable characters into the SSID. Those skilled in the art willrecognize that the above described process may be combined with setupsoftware to initialize an access point. With such a combination, thegeographic code could be semi-automatically added by the access pointconfiguration software to the SSID.

In an alternate embodiment, this software process could be incorporatedinto a decoding client (a locatable device with the geographic codesoftware the present invention operable thereon). The decoding clientthat wishes to use geographic codes can display a simple button whichasks the map display to be centered near the current location.Alternatively, the client might simply keep the map display constantlyupdated, or might have a wide array of other affordances wheregeographic code information might be inserted. For example, the currentlocation code might be into text, or as numeric information into aspreadsheet.

Rejecting Geographic Codes

It is clear that someone can set up malicious access points withmisleading geographic codes. Indeed, it is quite likely that some pointswill appear to have valid geographic codes by accident. Access pointsand their names or SSIDs are controlled by companies andindividuals—there is no guarantee that the owner of an access point willadd the correct geographic code or will add any code at all. Simplesanity checks against previously calculated locations, the time that haspassed, and other visible access points should mitigate such problemsalmost entirely. Referring now to FIGS. 12 and 13, embodiments forrejecting or filtering the geographic codes for such instances ofincorrectly labeled access points will be described. Referring first toFIG. 12, one embodiment for rejecting incorrectly labeled geographiccodes will be described. When a tagged access point is mislabeled, andthree or more at access points are visible, the present method makes itpossible to reject the mislabeled access points. The method begins byreceiving 1202 geographic codes from a plurality of access points. Thenumber of access points from which geographic codes are received ispreferably greater than three. Next, each geographic code received instep 1202 is decoded 1204 to determine the location of its associatedaccess point. Then, for each geographic code, an average distance toother location of other codes is computed 1206. Next, any geographiccodes with an average distance less than a predetermined threshold areidentified 1208. The geographic codes with an average distance less thana predetermined threshold (T) are presumed to be correctly labeled. Thegeographic codes with an average is greater than a predeterminedthreshold are presumed to be mislabeled. The threshold could be obtainedin any number of ways such as by statistical measures, empiricaltesting, trial and error, or by manual selection. For example, thethreshold may be simply selected to reject any distance greater thanabout a hundred feet since that is the typical range at which a WiFiaccess point can be detected. Finally, since the identified codes arepresumed to be correctly labeled, they are used to determine 1210 thelocation. For example, the location method described above withreference to FIG. 9 can be used to compute the location of the locatabledevice 102 receiving these geographic codes. This is particularlyadvantageous because it leads to greater accuracy in calculating thelocation of the locatable device 102.

Referring now to FIG. 13, a second embodiment of a method for rejectingincorrectly labeled geographic codes will be described. This methodbegins by receiving 1302 a geographic code. The received geographic codeis then decoded 1304 to determine a location. Next on the methodacquires 1306 a location from a non-geographic code source. For example,the locatable device 102 may include an accelerometer that providesinformation about how far the locatable device 102 has traveled. If thelocatable device 102 has knowledge of its prior location (such as from apreviously encountered access point) and has traveled 500 meters in lasttwo minutes, an independent computation of location can be providedusing data from the accelerometer. In another example, the locatabledevice 102 may be a smart phone with GPS capabilities that uses a GPScomputation to provide the location generated in step 1306. Next, themethod compares 1308 the decoded location (from step 1304) to theacquired location (from step 1306). Then, the method determines 1310whether the decoded location and the acquired location are more than athreshold apart. In one embodiment, the threshold is about 100 meters.If the locations are more than a threshold apart, the geographic code isnot used 1314 to determine location since it is quite likely that it isa mislabeled access point. If the locations are not more than athreshold apart, then the geographic code is used 1312 to determine thelocation. Those skilled in the art will recognize that this method hasbeen described using only a single geographic code, however, it may beapplied in parallel to a plurality of geographic codes.

Discovering Network Services

If graphic codes are included in a network service discovery broadcast,then listening devices could determine their own location and decidewhether a device is sufficiently close to warrant inclusion in a list ofdiscovered services. Referring now to FIG. 14, a process for discoveringa network service according to the present invention will be described.The method begins with a series of operations being performed by aservice provider 1430. The service provider 1430 could be any devicethat offers any type of service over a network such as a peer-to-peernetwork. In one example described below, a personal computer having aclient access the network services offered and provided by a printer,however, the present invention is not limited to printer services only.The method begins by determining 1402 a location of a service provider1430. This process is similar to that described above with reference todetermining the location of an access point. Next, a geographic code iscreated 1404 for the location determined. Then the geographic code isinserted 1406 into the network broadcast signal generated by the serviceprovider 1430. This process is similar to that described above forinserting the geographic code into the SSID of the access point, butinstead inserting the geographic code into a network broadcast signal.Like the beacon signal of the access point, the network broadcast signalis a signal that is repeatedly sent over the network to allow clientdevices to discover services offered by other device connected to thenetwork. Next, the service provider 1430 transmits 1408 the networkservice discovery broadcast signal including the geographic code. One ormore client devices receive 1410 the network broadcast signal. Themethod will now be described with regard to a particular client 1432.The client 1432 received 1410 the network broadcast signal. The client1432 then extracts 1412 the geographic code from the broadcast signal.This process is similar to the locatable device 102 removing thegeographic code from the SSID described above. Next the client 1432decodes 1414 the geographic code to determine the location of the deviceoffering the network service. Next, the method determines 1416 whetherthe location of the device offering the service is within a predefinedrange of the client. The predefined range may be dependent on the typeof network service being offered. For example, if the network service isa print operation, the range may be limited to a distance that the useris willing to retrieve printed documents such as 100 feet. In anotherexample, a client may advertise that it has the ability to accept scansand include its location as a geographic code. When a multifunctionperipheral that produces scans may receive a network broadcast butdecide to only show on it display panel those devices within 200 feet aspossible destinations for scans. If the PC is within the 200 feet of themultifunction printer it will be displayed as a location, if greaterthan 200 feet it will not, the network broadcast will be ignored and itwill not be possible to deliver scans to that client. For other networkservices, this predefined range may be greater or smaller. If thelocation of the device offering the service is determined 1416 not to bewithin a predefined range, the client 1432 ignores the networkbroadcast, takes no action and the method is complete. However, if thelocation is determined 1416 to be within a predefined range of theclient 1432, the service is presented 1418 to the user in a list ofdiscovered services. Those skilled in the art will recognize thatpresentation of the network service in the list in step 1418 is just oneof many possibilities. For example, the client 1432 may take any numberof different actions to utilize the network service according to defaultparameters that may have been said previously for this client 1432.

Resource Discovery and Display

Referring now to FIG. 15, an embodiment of a process for discovering andmapping resources according to the present invention will be described.Any number of devices of different types may include circuitry togenerate a beacon signal that includes a geographic code even though notproviding the full communication capabilities provided by traditionalwireless network access point. For example, a given area may include alow end personal printer, a high-speed and high-capacity printer, a fileserver and data storage. Each of these devices might have the capabilityto generate a beacon signal in accordance with the present invention.The method begins by receiving 1502 a plurality of beacons. In oneembodiment, each beacon comes from a different resource. Next the methodextracts 1504 the geographic codes from the beacon signals received instep 1502. Then the method decodes 1506 the geographic codes todetermine the locations associated with each of the geographic codes.This effectively determines the location associated with each beaconsignal. Then the method determines 1508 the location of the client. Thiscan be done using the method described above with reference to FIG. 9using the received beacons in step 1502. Then the method retrieves 1510a map of the area near the client. The previous step determined thelocation and this information can be used along with a conventionalmapping program to produce a map of the area near the client. In oneembodiment, the location of the client is near the center of the map. Inanother, the position of client is marked clearly on the map, which hasknown geographic locations specified for each corner. Next, the methodmodifies 1512 the map to include positions of the resources for whichbeacon codes have been received and to include the position of theclient. For example, a conventional marker may be used to indicate theposition of the client. The positions of the resources are also depictedon the map with a different symbol from the client. Depending on thetype of service, a different icon or symbol may be used to represent thedifferent types of resources. Finally, the modified map is displayed1514. Those skilled in the art will recognize that this method has anumber of advantages. First, in a world where devices are becomingincreasingly portable, this method could be embodied in a softwareprogram offered on laptops and other types of portable computingdevices. This would allow the user of the laptop to be positioned in anarea and can generate a map of all the resources in its vicinity andtheir precise location. For example, in a work environment, there areusually several printers on a single floor and dozens of printers in abuilding. Often the printers are named based on the type of printer oreven based on a rough idea of their location (“4th floor laser”). If theprinters were also tagged with a geographic code, the printer dialog boxcould present a map of the client's location along with a preciselocation of the available printers. It is much simpler to select aprinter from a map than to guess where the printer is based on the name.This is very important for mobile printing locations where workersoutside of their office may desire to print a document and may not knowthe location of available printers in an academic or corporate setting.Other types of resources can be discovered in the same manner usinggeographic coding plus a map application. Second, the map may be used ona periodic basis such as by office staff to track the location of theassets of the business. For example, an office manager may produce a mapof an office on a quarterly basis to identify locations of equipmentsuch as photocopiers, printers, computers etc. Their variety of otherapplications specific to other industries where such a map and auditingfunction could be valuable such as in a doctor's office, a hospital, aresearch lab construction sites or other facility where expensiveequipment and its location would need to be tracked.

Asset Tracking

Referring now to FIG. 16, an embodiment of a location tracking system1600 for asset tracking using geographic codes according to the presentinvention is shown. The location tracking system 1600 includes a numberof components similar to those described above for the computing system100. For convenience and ease of understanding, like reference numbersare used to identify components having the same or similarfunctionality. In one embodiment, the location tracking system 1600comprises a locatable device or client device 102, a plurality ofnetwork access points 104, 106 and 108, an asset server 1604 and anetwork management system 1606. The locatable device or client device102 and the plurality of network access point 104, 106 and 108 have beendescribed above with reference to FIG. 1 so that description will not berepeated here. In an alternate embodiment for asset tracking, veryinexpensive tags could be made which can receive WiFi SSID's andcalculate the location. If the location is outside of the restrictedarea, the tag could sound an internal alarm. Since the tag can computeits own location, there is no need to send information to a server. Ofcourse, the tag must be initialized as to where the restricted locationsuch as by using a serial or USB connection to the processor which ispart of the tag. The asset server 1604 is a conventional server but alsoincludes an ability to wirelessly communicate with the locatable device102 via communication channel 1602. Communication with the asset server1604 may occur using any variety of methods. For instance, the locatabledevice 102 might passively advertise its location using SNMP protocol,allowing a scanning asset server 1604 to find its location. In analternate embodiment, it may use Web services protocols such as HTTP,SOAP or XML-RCP to push updated information to the asset server 1604.The asset server 1604 has ability to communicate with other devices andstore large amounts of location data. For example, the asset server 1604will maintain records indicating the current location of a particularlocatable device 102 as well as its historical locations. For example,the asset server 1604 maintains a database of locatable devicelocations. Such an asset server would provide a human readable display,such as a table or graphical map, and allow queries to be generated tolocate a particular object, or all objects of a certain class such as ascanner or printer, and display the location of those objects to ahuman. The asset server might flag certain objects as being located inforbidden locations, or note that previously tracked objects can nolonger be found, or note the existence of objects whose characteristicsare not yet known. And example of the latter might be an unauthorizeddesktop printer installed by an employee. The asset server 1604 isadapted for communication with the network management system 1606. Thenetwork management system 1606 is coupled to the asset server 1604 toreceive and process location information. Network management serversperform many of the functions noted above by asset servers, but alsointegrate functions to display the status of networked devices. Forexample, whether a networked device is operational, whether the devicehas supplies such as paper and ink for continued operation, and usageinformation such as number of network packets transmitted or number ofpages printed. Such a server might also display location information ofnetwork resources, or the locations of portable devices connected to thenetwork and which network resources are interacting with the mobiledevices. In one embodiment, the network management system 1606 can setboundaries and regions for particular devices, and generate warnings ornotifications when the devices are moved outside those boundaries. Thoseskilled in the art will recognize that the network management system1606 can be used to provide any number of advanced location processingfunctions. For example, the network management system 1606 can be usedto track a child cell phone, or an employee's badge.

Referring now also to FIG. 17, an embodiment of a method for assettracking using geographic codes is described. The method begins with alocatable device or client device 102 receiving 1702 one or moregeographic codes. The client device 102 then decodes 1704 the geographiccodes into locations. Then the client device 102 determines itslocation. These steps of receiving, decoding and determining can beperformed in a manner similar to the methods previously described. Thenext, the client device 102 determines 1708 whether it has moved. In oneembodiment, the client device 102 maintains a buffer listing thelocations at which the client device 102 was located for a predeterminedamount of time in the past. The location determined in step 1706compared to the latest entry in this buffer to determine whether theclient device 102 is moved. If the client device 102 has not moved, themethod returns/loops back to step 1702 to repeat the steps of receiving,decoding and determining described above. On the other hand if theclient device 102 has moved, the method calculates a distance betweenthe current location as calculated in step 1706 and the past location ofthe client device 102 such as might be retrieved from the buffer. Themethod then determines 1710 whether the distances greater than apredefined threshold. This predefined threshold may be set by anadministrator that is responsible for tracking assets. In oneembodiment, the threshold may be a distance that would place the clientdevice 102 outside the area of the access points such as 50 feet. Inanother embodiment, the threshold may be a distance greater than thebuilding in which the asset is located. If the method determined 1710that the distance is not greater than the threshold, then the methodcontinues in step 1712 to record a movement event after which the methodreturns to step 1702 to continue to monitor location of the clientdevice 102. In one embodiment, the movement event is recorded only atthe client device 102 this minimizes network and conserves the power ofthe client device 102. In another embodiment, the movement event is alsotransmitted from the client device 102 to the asset server 1604. In suchan embodiment, the asset server 1604 and the network management system1606 can more precisely monitor the location of the client device 102.If however the distance was determined 1710 to be greater than thethreshold, the method continues by notifying 1714 the asset server 1604that a significant movement event has occurred and the new location ofthe client device 102 is updated 1716. The new location of the clientdevice 102 may also be stored at the client device 102. Based on themethod described above, the asset server 1604 maintains a consistentrecord of the locations of movement of the client device 102.

File Transfer

Referring now to FIGS. 18 and 19, an embodiment of a process for usinggeographic codes for automated file transfer will be described. FIG. 18is a flow diagram of the method while FIG. 19 is graphicalrepresentation of an example graphic user interface 1901. The methodbegins by receiving 1802 beacons (or network discovery broadcasts) withgeographic codes from resources. For example, a resource may be aprinter, a file server, a data storage device, a multi-functionperipheral, etc. This method assumes that each of those resources has ageographic code and transmits that code in some manner either via awireless beacon signal or via a network broadcast signal. In a mannersimilar to that described above, the client device 102 extracts 1804 anddecodes the geographic codes to determine the respective locations ofthe resources. Using the beacon signals, the client device 102 computes1806 its location.

In this embodiment, the client device 102 and other client devices havethe capability to broadcast signals including a geographic coderepresenting their location. Each client can broadcast their location ina manner that can be received by the other local clients. For example,Apple's “Bonjour” technology or other multicast or broadcast techniquescan be used by the clients to notify other clients of their currentlocation. Next, the client device 102 receives 1808 location broadcastsfrom other clients. In one embodiment, the other client devices sendtheir location as a geographic code. In another embodiment, theirlocation is transmitted as coordinates. In either circumstance, clientdevice 102 uses the location coordinates, converts them to a commoncoordinate system, or converts the geographic code to a location and useit for the remaining steps of this method. Then the client device 102retrieves 1810 a map of the area near the client device 102. Forexample, the client device 102 can use a conventional mapping programalong with the location of the client determined in step 1806 toretrieve the appropriate map. Next the method modifies 1812 theretrieved map to include positions of resources, other clients and theclient device 102. Next the method displays 1814 the modified map. FIG.19 shows a graphic representation of a display device 1900 showing oneembodiment of an example graphic user interface 1901 of the presentinvention. In this example, there are four client devices, tworesources, namely a server and a printer. As shown in FIG. 19, thegraphic user interface 1901 includes a first region 1902 and the secondregion 1904. In one embodiment, each of these regions 1902, 1904 is awindow as conventionally employed in a number of operating systems. Thefirst region 1902 displays a hierarchal file structure including filesand folders. In this example, there is a folder 1906 and a plurality offiles 1908, 1910 and 1912. The second region displays 1904 the modifiedmap generated in step 1812 above. In this example, the locations of theresources specifically the server 1920 and the printer 1922 are depictedin their relative location compared to the client device 102, C1 1924.Other clients C2 1926, C3 1928 and C4 1930 are displayed on the mapaccording to the position broadcast by them. In one embodiment similarto that shown in FIG. 19, the resources are represented by it for shape,a rectangle, while the clients are represented by a second differentshape, a hexagon so that they may easily be differentiated by the user.Those skilled in the art will recognize that be shapes are used merelyby way of example and that various other shapes our icons are symbolsmay be used in their place.

The method continues by receiving 1816 user input, and then transferring1818 files according to the user input. Those skilled in the art willrecognize that file transfer is used only by way of example and that avariety of other actions between two clients or between a client andresource may be performed using the graphic interface in 1901 depictedin FIG. 19. FIG. 19 shows by way of example an arrow 1950 thatrepresents the user clicking on file three 1912 and dragging it over theicon for the fourth client, C4 1930. In response to this input, filethree would be transferred from the first client device, C1 1924, to thefourth client, C4 1930. This method and graphic user interface 1901advantageously allow a user to choose the recipient (person or device)graphically—for instance by selecting the person based on their positionaround the table. Similarly, the user may cause a file or document to beprinted by dragging it and drop unit over the icon 1922 representing theprinter or stored/transferred by dragging and dropping it over theserver 1920. Although not shown, an area on the map or graphic userinterface 1901 could be designated as a place to share the document withall the other computing devices. Alternatively, a number of devicescould be selected by dragging across the map or graphic user interface1901 and then when the document is dropped on one of the selecteddevices; it could be shared with all of the selected devices and notwith any other non-selected devices. Note that using the map technique,the name of the computer or printer is not required—the location isenough. The drag and drop technique could be coupled with an encrypteddistribution method where all documents are shared with all devices inrange in encrypted form in advance and only the decryption key isexchanged when document is dropped on the receiving computer.

Location Tracking

Referring now to FIG. 20, an embodiment of a process for locationtracking and recording according to the present invention is described.The method begins by receiving 1702 geographic codes, the decoding 1704geographic codes into locations and determining 1706 the location of theclient device 102 similar to other methods as has been described above.Next, the method stores 2002 the location of the client device 102 andthe time. In one embodiment, this is performed by storing theinformation locally at the client device 102. In another embodiment,this is performed by sending the information to another device such asthe asset server 1604 and storing it there. Next the method retrieves2004 a map based on location of the client device 102. In the event amap is already being displayed, this step modifies 2004 the map based onthe location of the client device 102. For example, the modification maybe to keep the map with the location from step 1706 at the center. Thenthe method adds 2006 information about access points that have ageographic code in their beacon signal. For example, the map can bemodified to include icons showing the locations of the access points forwhich beacon signals have been received. The map is then displayed 2008by the client device 102 to the user. The client device 102 continues tomonitor and detect additional beacon signals. The client device 102determines 2010 whether the client device has moved or whether apredetermined amount of time has elapsed. If either of these conditionshas occurred, the method loops back to step 1702 to gather moreinformation and repeat the process for updating the map. If he theseconditions have occurred, the method loops back and mongers foradditional beacon signals. This method allows the automatic tracking andrecording of where a client device 102 has traveled. The storedinformation can then be used to generate a trip report or way to getdirections back to somewhere would be very valuable.

In another embodiment, the above method can be combined with aPlaceStamp. A PlaceStamp is made by entangling hash chained logs locatedon a device at a fixed geographic code, and one on a mobile device. Byperforming this sort of entanglement, a mobile device can prove it wasat a location at a particular time, and the fixed location device canprove that it was not moved or in a different location. By entanglingthese logs with other sensors, like accelerometers and GPS receivers,the present invention can be used to provide a very strong proof oflocation. These proofs might be used for legal purposes, or militarytracking. Alternatively, they might be used to pass out coupons forattendance at particular events

In yet another embodiment, the client device 102 can maintain a map ofaccess points that have been seen and those that have been registered.The registered access points might include data about the access point,including which business owns the access point or whether or not theaccess point is open. The client device 102 may find its location byasking the user or from a geographically-coded closed access point. Fromthat starting position, the client might determine that moving 2 blocksnorth would put the client device 102 within range of an open accesspoint or take the person to a cafe or library. Access points could beregistered along with their geographic codes on a server which couldthen make that database available to geographic code clients.

Registry—DNS

Referring now to FIG. 21, an embodiment of a process for usinggeographic codes as part of a registry according to the presentinvention is described. Each geographic code covers a very small area.In the Menlo Park, Calif. area, the coverage of one code isapproximately 2 feet by 3 feet or so. There are 60^8*256 possible uniquegeographic codes (approx. 4×10^56). This guarantees that each accesspoint will have a unique code. A registry is provided to link a given IPaddress or URL to each access point. For instance, when someoneregisters an access point, they could also indicate which IP address orURL that access point should reference. If another client discovers anaccess point and the associated geographic code, they could look up thebusiness that owns that access point. The method for providing suchfunctionality begins by determining 2102 the geographic code for anaccess point. Then the method determines 2104 a related IP address orURL. The geographic code and the IP address are then stored 2106 in theregistry. Once the steps have been completed registration process iscomplete. Then a client device 102 discovers 2108 an access point anddetermines 2110 the geographic code for the access point from its beaconsignal. Using the geographic code extracted from the SSID of the beaconsignal, the client device can access 2112 the registry and retrieve anIP address. In one embodiment, the client device 102 could go to webaddress: http://[tag].geofi.net/ where [tag] is the geographic code andthe Domain Name Service (DNS) could respond with the IP address that wasregistered. In another embodiment, a client device 102 could access thelink on a Web server between http://geofi.net/[tag] and the URL of theregistered site. Since geographic codes can include upper and lower casecharacters according to the encoding scheme described above, it will benecessary to modify the geographic codes slightly to use it with DNS.For example, the lowercase characters can be prefixed with an hyphen.Thus, an example geographic code “8OuqccVQj” would be written as“8O-U-Q-C-CVQ-J”. Valid URLs could be:“http://8O-U-Q-C-CVQ-J.GeoFi.org/” or“ftp://ftp.8O-U-Q-C-CVQ-J.GeoFi.org/”. Once the IP address has been usedto access the registry, it can be used 2114 to get additionalinformation in a conventional manner such as through a web browser.

Automatic Geographic Code Setting

Referring now to FIG. 22, an embodiment of a process for automaticallysetting geographic codes according to the present invention isdescribed. For full utilization of this method, it is assumed that theaccess point incorporates additional sensors such as an accelerometer,compass, etc. for detecting movement of the access point. The processbegins by setting 2202 up the access point. Access points usually comewith some type of setup application. Sometimes this is a normalexecutable file and sometimes the setup is done using a web applicationover an http connection. In one embodiment, the set up is modified topresent 2204 a map to the user. The map may be based upon locationinformation from the included GPS sensor or other component thatprovides the access point with location information. In one embodiment,access point device could communicate via USB or Bluetooth with a GPSunit to determine this location. Such communication protocols arestandard. Many GPS devices sold today include some communicationprotocol. In other words, an access point that hasn't been coded couldharvest GPS data from GPS+Bluetooth or GPS+WiFi devices. In other words,if an access point doesn't know where it is, but sees a Bluetooth orWiFi device that does know, it could update its location based on thedevice. The user then inputs a selection about the location of theaccess point that is received 2206 at the access point. Next, the accesspoint generates and inserts 2208 a geographic code based on the inputreceived. The method monitors 2210 for movement of the access point.Since the access point includes an accelerometer, any movement of theaccess point can be detected. Next, method determines 2212 whether theaccess point has moved. If not, the method returns to step 2210 tomonitor for access point movement. However, if the access point is movedthe method continues by deactivating 2214 the geographic code. In oneembodiment, the geographic code is effectively “turned off” by removingthe code from the SSID signal of the access point. In anotherembodiment, the geographic code is also removed from the SSID signal ofthe access point if the access point loses power. Then the methodre-computes 2216 the geographic code and inserts it into the SSID forthe access point. In one embodiment, the access point includes a compassas well as an accelerometer, so that the access point can re-compute itsgeographic code when it's moved for short distances. After thecompletion of step 2216, the method returns to step 2210 to monitor foradditional movement of the access point.

Other Applications

Location-based Superdistribution. Superdistribution is a technique ofputting documents in locations in advance of when they are needed.Documents can be pushed to servers where people have indicated aninterest in those types of documents. A server to receive documents canpublish its existence via geographic code on a web site. When a documentis read or modified, it is associated with the current geographiclocation and updates can be routed automatically to the associatedserver. The GeoFi.org web site can pass out IP subdomains for localservers as something like. [tag].GeoFi.org as a domain.

Web service—convenience. Businesses can include geographic codes intheir web sites so that when a user goes to a web site, it is possibleto determine where the business is located. RSS feeds can also includegeographic codes. For news sites, the geographic code might indicatewhere the story occurred. For blogs, the geographic code could indicatewhere the blog entry was written or the location that the entry isabout. The geographic codes make convenient tags for any applicationthat allows tags: blogs, photo-sharing services like Flikr, and so on.

Geographic Code-based mesh routing. Geographic codes attached to accesspoints gives much more information to a global route optimizationprogram, providing it with good ideas about which mesh nodes might beavailable and what is the shortest physical path to route packets acrossthe network. This could be particularly advantageous for extremely timecritical applications like control systems.

Sensor fusion. When a device has a combination of sensors, includingaccelerometers, WiFi electronics, a compass, a clock, and/or a GPSreceiver, geo-location information can be more accurate and when onefails (for instance if no geographic-coded access points are nearby) thedevice can fall back on another sensor. This might be especially usefulfor a device intended to be used both indoor and outdoor. Geographiccodes can be used indoors and GPS can take over when the device roamsoutside.

Social networking applications. There are several new businesses likeLoopt that have sprung up connecting people with their friends based onlocation. Loopt uses cell phone technology—tower triangulation andGPS—to notify users when their friends are nearby. Each person'slocation is sent regularly to a server. When friends are near eachother, they can be notified so that they can get together.

The foregoing description of the embodiments of the present inventionhas been presented for the purposes of illustration and description. Itis not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the present invention tothe precise form disclosed. Many modifications and variations arepossible in light of the above teaching. It is intended that the scopeof the present invention be limited not by this detailed description,but rather by the claims of this application. As will be understood bythose familiar with the art, the present invention may be embodied inother specific forms without departing from the spirit or essentialcharacteristics thereof. Likewise, the particular naming and division ofthe modules, routines, features, attributes, methodologies and otheraspects are not mandatory or significant, and the mechanisms thatimplement the present invention or its features may have differentnames, divisions and/or formats. Furthermore, as will be apparent to oneof ordinary skill in the relevant art, the modules, routines, features,attributes, methodologies and other aspects of the present invention canbe implemented as software, hardware, firmware or any combination of thethree. Also, wherever a component, an example of which is a module, ofthe present invention is implemented as software, the component can beimplemented as a standalone program, as part of a larger program, as aplurality of separate programs, as a statically or dynamically linkedlibrary, as a kernel loadable module, as a device driver, and/or inevery and any other way known now or in the future to those of ordinaryskill in the art of computer programming. Additionally, the presentinvention is in no way limited to implementation in any specificprogramming language, or for any specific operating system orenvironment. Accordingly, the disclosure of the present invention isintended to be illustrative, but not limiting, of the scope of thepresent invention, which is set forth in the following claims.

1. A method for using geographic codes transmitted by a plurality ofsource devices, the method comprising: receiving, with a first clientdevice, signals including geographic codes from at least one of theplurality of source devices, the geographic codes including an altitudeof each of the source devices; extracting, with the first client device,the geographic codes from the received signals; decoding, with the firstclient device, the geographic codes to determine location information ofeach of the source devices; determining, with the first client device, alocation of the first client device based on the location information;receiving, with the first client device, a location broadcast from asecond client device; and performing, with the first client device, anaction using the location information, the action comprising: retrievinga map of an area near the location of the first client device; modifyingthe map to include a first marker showing the location of the firstclient device and a second marker showing the location of the secondclient device; and outputting the modified map.
 2. The method of claim 1wherein performing the action further comprises: modifying the map toinclude a marker showing at least one of the source devices.
 3. Themethod of claim 2 wherein each of the plurality of source devices is onefrom the group of a low end personal printer, a high-speed andhigh-capacity printer, a file server and data storage.
 4. The method ofclaim 1 wherein performing the action further comprises: determiningwhether the first client device has been moved; and sending anotification to an asset server.
 5. The method of claim 4 whereindetermining whether the first client device has been moved comprises:determining whether the first client device has moved a distance greaterthan a threshold; recording a movement event at the first client deviceif the first client device has not moved the distance greater than thethreshold; and if the first client device has moved the distance greaterthan the threshold, sending an updated location for the first clientdevice to the asset server.
 6. The method of claim 2 wherein modifyingthe map further comprises representing the at least one of the sourcedevices based on a type of service.
 7. The method of claim 1 furthercomprising: receiving input from the first client device; andtransferring a file according to the received input.
 8. The method ofclaim 1 wherein outputting the modified map includes displaying themodified map as part of a graphical user interface including a firstregion displaying files and folders and a second region displaying themodified map.
 9. The method of claim 1 wherein performing the actionfurther comprises storing the location of the first client device and atime in a log.
 10. The method of claim 9 comprising: adding informationabout a coded access point to the map; and outputting the map havinginformation about the coded access point.